CREMATION AT BEJREPUREE OF A MAN IN THE MIDDLE WALKS OF LIFE. [From the _Bangkok Recorder_, May, 1866.] The corpse was first to be offered to the vultures, a hundred or more. Before the coffin was opened the filthy and horrible gang had assembled, “for wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles [vultures] be gathered together.” They were perched on the ridges of the temple, and even on small trees and bushes within a few feet of the body; and so greedy were they that the sexton and his assistants had to beat them off many times before the coffin could be opened. They seemed to know that there would be but a mouthful for each if divided among them all, and that packs of greedy dogs were also in waiting for their share. The body was taken from the coffin and laid on a pile of wood that had been prepared on a small temporary altar. Then the birds were allowed to descend upon the corpse and tear it as they liked. For a while it was quite hidden in the rush. But each bird, grabbing its part with bill and claws, spread its wings and mounted to some quiet place to eat. The sexton seemed to think that he too was “making merit” by cutting off parts of the body and throwing them to the hungry dogs, as the dying man had done in bequeathing his body to these carrion-feeders. The birds, not satisfied with what they got from the altar, came down and quarreled with the curs for their share. While this was going on the mourners stood waiting, with wax candles and incense-sticks, to pay their last tribute of respect to the deceased, by assisting in the burning of the bones after the vultures and dogs had stripped them. The sexton, with the assistance of another, gathered up the skeleton and put it back into the coffin, which was lifted by four men and carried around the funeral pile three times. It was then laid on the pile of wood, and a few sticks were put into the coffin to aid in burning the bones. Then a lighted torch was applied to the pile, and the relatives and other mourners advanced and laid each a wax candle by the torch. Others brought incense and cast it on the pile. The vultures, having had but a scanty breakfast, lingered about the place until the fire had left nothing more for them, when they shook their ugly heads, and, hopping a few steps to get up a momentum, flapped their harpy wings and flew away. CHAPTER XVII. _THE WATS OF SIAM._ “On the pagoda-spire The bells are swinging, With their little golden circlets in a flutter With tales the wooing winds have dared to utter, Till all are ringing As if a choir Of golden-nested birds in heaven were singing; And with a lulling sound The music floats around, And drops like balm into the drowsy ear.”――MRS. JUDSON.